Urban metabolism of megacities: A comparative analysis of Shanghai, Tokyo, London and Paris to inform low carbon and sustainable development pathways

Han, Wenyi; Geng, Yong; Lu, Yangsiyu; Wilson, Jeffrey; Sun, Lu; Onishi, S.; Geldron, Alain; Qian, Yiying

doi:10.1016/j.energy.2018.05.073

Cited by 32 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 37 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Twelve of the case studies were not related to ES assessment. Instead, these 12 case studies calculated indices or indicators relating to network relationships [25,78], human activity [77,81] and emergy indicators [76,80,82,84]. These types of UM performance index are useful insofar as they reveal the dominant socio-economic patterns relating to material and energy flows, but we did not find these indices suitable for assessing the supply of any ES.…”

Section: Um Suitability For Integration Of Esmentioning

confidence: 95%

Pathways to Modelling Ecosystem Services within an Urban Metabolism Framework

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Urbanisation poses new and complex sustainability challenges. Socio-economic activities drive material and energy flows in cities that influence the health of ecosystems inside and outside the urban system. Recent studies suggest that these flows, under the urban metabolism (UM) metaphor, can be extended to encompass the assessment of urban ecosystem services (UES). Advancing UM approaches to assess UES may be a valuable solution to these arising sustainability challenges, which can support urban planning decisions. This paper critically reviews UM literature related to the UES concept and identifies approaches that may allow or improve the assessment of UES within UM frameworks. We selected from the UM literature 42 studies that encompass UES aspects, and analysed them on the following key investigation themes: temporal information, spatial information, system boundary aspects and cross-scale indicators. The analysis showed that UES are rarely acknowledged in UM literature, and that existing UM approaches have limited capacity to capture the complexity of spatio-temporal and multi-scale information underpinning UES, which has hampered the implementation of operational decision support systems so far. We use these results to identify and illustrate pathways towards a UM-UES modelling approach. Our review suggests that cause–effect dynamics should be integrated with the UM framework, based on spatially-specific social, economic and ecological data. System dynamics can inform on the causal relationships underpinning UES in cities and, therefore, can help moving towards a knowledge base tool to support urban planners in addressing urban challenges.

show abstract

Section: Um Suitability For Integration Of Esmentioning

confidence: 95%

Pathways to Modelling Ecosystem Services within an Urban Metabolism Framework

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…• In a comparative study of UM of different megacities, Han et al (2018) considered the industrial structures of cities and suggested that the pursuit of service industries instead of manufacturing can allow cities to achieve green growth.…”

Section: Urban Metabolism Applications Challenges and Opportunitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…4. While there have been attempts to carry out comparative UM studies across cities (including those by Currie and Musango 2017;Han et al 2018), it is generally difficult to compare UM studies without a standard approach. Beloin-Saint-Pierre et al ( 2017) reported on the lack of consistency on assessment methods.…”

Section: Urban Metabolism Applications Challenges and Opportunitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban Metabolism

Derrible

Cheah

Arora

et al. 2021

The Urban Book Series

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Urban metabolism (UM) is fundamentally an accounting framework whose goal is to quantify the inflows, outflows, and accumulation of resources (such as materials and energy) in a city. The main goal of this chapter is to offer an introduction to UM. First, a brief history of UM is provided. Three different methods to perform an UM are then introduced: the first method takes a bottom-up approach by collecting/estimating individual flows; the second method takes a top-down approach by using nation-wide input–output data; and the third method takes a hybrid approach. Subsequently, to illustrate the process of applying UM, a practical case study is offered using the city-state of Singapore as an exemplar. Finally, current and future opportunities and challenges of UM are discussed. Overall, by the early twenty-first century, the development and application of UM have been relatively slow, but this might change as more and better data sources become available and as the world strives to become more sustainable and resilient.

show abstract

“…During the last few decades, the MuSIASEM technique has been used as a diagnostic and simulation tool and applications have been oriented to investigate the metabolic profiles of nations (Falconi-Benitez, 2001;Ginard-Bosh and Ramos-Martin, 2016;Andreoni, 2017), productions activities (Silva-Macher, 2016;Parra et al, 2018), regions (Ramos-Martin et al, 2009;Siciliano, 2012;Fierro et al, 2019), cities (Lu et al, 2016;Chifari et al, 2017;Han et al, 2018;Perez-Sanchez et al, 2019) and energy end-uses (Velasco-Fernández at al., 2018).…”

Section: Musiasem Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

From the Celtic Tiger to the Celtic Phoenix: The metabolic profile of Ireland and the main drivers of energy change

Andreoni

2020

Journal of Cleaner Production

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this paper, the metabolic profile of Ireland and the main drivers of energy variations are analysed for the period 1998-2014. By considering the years that extend from the Celtic Tiger to the Celtic Phoenix, the socioeconomic and energy variables are analysed during periods of economic growth and recession. The main objective is to investigate how demographic and economic trends have influenced the energy used across different levels of analysis. The potential implications of economic growth and population structure are also discussed. The main results show that the standard of living has been the main factor influencing the energy consumption increase. In addition, the reduction of the economic energy intensity, driven by structural changes and implementation of energy efficiency action plans, has contributed to reduce the energy used in relation to gross domestic product and human time. Being characterised by one of the largest financial crashes and one of the quickest economic recovery, together with one of the highest population increase across European Union countries, Ireland represents an interesting case study to investigate the relationships existing between socioeconomic and energy variables. The results can support the design of policies oriented to achieve sustainable energy strategies.

show abstract

Urban metabolism of megacities: A comparative analysis of Shanghai, Tokyo, London and Paris to inform low carbon and sustainable development pathways

Cited by 32 publications

References 37 publications

Pathways to Modelling Ecosystem Services within an Urban Metabolism Framework

Pathways to Modelling Ecosystem Services within an Urban Metabolism Framework

Urban Metabolism

From the Celtic Tiger to the Celtic Phoenix: The metabolic profile of Ireland and the main drivers of energy change

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About